'Bones': Emily Deschanel gives four teases for tonight's season finale

Bones wraps up its current season tonight with an episode that’s going to show fans just how bad computer hacker madman Christopher Pelant (Andrew Leeds) can be. And Emily Deschanel couldn’t be prouder of the fact that eight seasons in, the show can still keep the audience on its toes. “I feel like new life has been breathed into the show,” she says of this season. “It doesn’t feel like we’re winding down, it feels like we’re revving up.”

To prepare for tonight’s episode, airing at 8 p.m. ET on Fox, Deschanel chatted with EW about what fans can expect.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Pelant is back tonight. He always hits a nerve with the Jeffersonian group, so how does everyone react to him being back?

DESCHANEL: I think it’s emotional for everybody. We’re essentially being targeted. He’s had his sights on all of us, and this time, it seems very targeted toward Booth, specifically. The victims — there may be multiple victims — have connections to the FBI, and Booth knows [the first] victim well. So it’s a big deal. It’s very disturbing to say the least.

How is Brennan feeling?

It’s of course terrifying for Brennan because here she is getting closer and closer to Booth, they have a child together — the idea of losing Booth has become a possibility. It just makes their relationship even closer, but certainly it feels very personal and terrifying and so it definitely effects Brennan deeply….Before, she only had herself, so she didn’t care. If she died, she died. She didn’t worry about losing somebody else because she wasn’t close enough to anyone. Now, it’s a big deal.

Pelant’s presence always brings up interesting moral questions for the characters. Is that the case this time around?

Definitely some moral questions come up, and life questions come up for Booth and Brennan. They have to make decisions within their natures….It has them questioning what their lives are like and the choices they’ve made and if they’re happy with that. So it might cause them to make some big decisions in their life, too.

…like marriage?

It’s definitely discussed. It’s definitely addressed. What the outcome is? I can’t really say. But it’s definitely addressed in this episode, and it certainly makes Brennan question her own beliefs and all of that. It’s a big — lots of things happen. It’s a big episode.

How do you feel about the prospects for the story if Bones and Booth are married or engaged one day, whenever that happens? From your perspective, does it feel like there’s a lot to mine there?

You know what? [The writers] always come up with new stories for whatever different status we have. I think it helps that we’re doing things out of order because it kept the show very interesting. We went from sexual tension to, oh, raising a child together. [laughs] So that’s a big deal, and it’s throwing these characters into different situations that are new to them. Now they’re figuring out how to raise a child from their two wildly different perspectives. I think if they got engaged or married it would bring some interesting new stories to the show, and it would just be a new opportunity for them to showcase their quirky, witty repartee.

Last, there’s a cliffhanger I assume. Tell me what you can.

The last minutes…it’s like the last few season finales where you really have to watch until the very late minute. I think there will be conflicting responses to the end of this episode. I think it really takes you on a roller coaster. And I think there will be happiness when certain things happen and sadness when other things happen.